Red Sox inched out by Rays of first place

By a distance of about half a yard, the Red Sox are half a game behind the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East. Here's the math:

PHOTO/ THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Tampa Bay's Jose Molina gets set to tag Boston's Daniel Nava on pivotal play at the plate in the eighth inning.

By a distance of about half a yard, the Red Sox are half a game behind the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East.

Here's the math:

David Ortiz missed a home run in the second inning by about a foot and didn't score, Stephen Drew's double in the eighth missed bouncing away from right fielder Wil Myers by a few inches, and Daniel Nava looked like he beat Jose Molina's tag at home by about four inches on what would have been Brandon Snyder's sacrifice fly later in the eighth.

The play at the plate, which wound up as an inning-ending double play, was what the Sox will remember the longest as they try to digest this 2-1 defeat.

It looked like Nava was in just ahead of center fielder Sam Fuld's throw. Plate umpire Jerry Meals disagreed. Nava argued, then manager John Farrell came out and began hollering, which led to his ejection.

“It was a missed call, a terrible call,” Farrell said after the game. “Daniel Nava was safe. We should still be playing now.”

Farrell took issue with Meals' angle on the play. He was on the first-base side of the plate, his viewed blocked by Molina. The video replay seemed to validate that claim. Even more importantly, Meals validated the claim, saying:

“What I saw was, Molina blocked the plate and Nava's foot lifted. But in the replays, you could clearly see Nava's foot got under for a split second and then lifted, so I was wrong on my decision. From the angle I had, I did not see his foot get under Molina's shin guard.”

So, Meals was wrong and it cost the Sox a run. The play at the plate would not have happened if Nava, pinch running for Ryan Lavarnway, had not made a base-running mistake one batter earlier. Nava was on second when Drew hit a liner off the base of the bullpen wall and could only get to third on the double.

Nava went halfway but thought Myers would make the catch, so he headed back toward second.

“It was a missed read,” Farrell said. “You're schooled that if the ball's not caught, you have to be in a position to score.”

“There was no doubt. I knew I was safe,” Nava said. “I wouldn't try and sell it — on replay, you'd see that I was safe. So I knew that I was safe. Unfortunately, that was the situation and obviously that was the call, but at the same time, I probably should have been there the at-bat before.

“I should have scored. It's my fault. I should have scored. A bad read. But, it happens.”

Nava is not the Sox' best base runner, nor their fastest. Farrell had Jose Iglesias available and used him in the ninth. He chose not to use Iglesias earlier, he said, because he wanted to leave open the option to make a double switch later.

Ortiz led off the second with a blast to left-center, one of those “home runs anywhere but Fenway” smashes. It hit a matter of a foot or so below the top of the Green Monster for a double, so Boston had a man on second with nobody out.

Rays starter David Price did not let Ortiz go anywhere. He got Mike Napoli to ground to shortstop, retired Jonny Gomes on a fly ball to center, and induced Lavarnway to ground out to third.

The Rays got their first run in the fourth with Sean Rodriguez lining a double off the top of Napoli's glove with Yunel Escobar at third. Tampa Bay made it 2-0 in the fifth, capitalizing on a leadoff double by Evan Longoria. He scored on Myers' force-play grounder to shortstop.

After Ortiz's double, Price was sensational. He retired the next 13 Boston batters in order, six of them on strikeouts. Snyder snapped that streak with a home run off the right-field foul pole before six more Sox batters went down in a row.

There was a 37-minute rain delay before the bottom of the eighth and Price faced one batter, Gomes, before manager Joe Maddon called for Joel Peralta, which is when the mayhem commenced.

Price got the win to improve to 6-5, working 7-1/3 innings. He beat Felix Doubront, who was in trouble all night. Doubront, who is 7-5, was lifted by Farrell after five.

A little more than half a game — just about the same as Boston's deficit in the division race.